Review: Meat for Satan’s Icebox

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2019

Images from the Internet

Meat for Satan’s Icebox

Directed by David Silvio

Kiss of Death Productions / Troma Team Videos

103 minutes, 2004

www.kiss-of-death-productions.com

George Romero famously said that his …of the Living Dead franchise was not about zombies, but rather about the culture into which the zombies were thrust. For example, the focus of his Night of… (1968) was about racism, and Dawn of… (1978) concerned consumerism. On some scale, Meat… could be looked at in this perspective.
 

The locus of this film is on cannibalism, but the main clique who perpetrates these heinous acts is also corporate cannibals, eating away at the telecom industry to ingest it into their own system. Director Silvio delves into Hershell Gordon Lewis (d. 2016) territory to achieve that point.
 

Crystal Aura

Cindy (Crystal Aura, aka Crystalann Jones) is a Catholic High School girl in trouble. She lives in a town named Satan’s Place (filmed in Romero’s back yard, Pittsburgh, PA), she saw her mom, Janet (Tiffany Apan), killed in front of her the year before, her boyfriend dumped her for blonde bimbo Amber (Angie Azur), and she’s in a drunken relationship with her professor dad (Tony Clemente) that rivals Mackenzie Phillips. The only person who will give her the time of day is new classmate Christian (Dennis M. Kusluch II, who looks a bit like Tab Hunter); it is ironically noted in the film of the irony between his name and where he lives. Cindy is also the focus of a lusty older nun (Kathy Bothem) and a tribe of forest cannibals reminiscent of The Hills Have Eyes (1977).

Christian has to be one of the worst male heroes in cinematic history: he gets physically beaten by just about everyone in the film, but of course the question is will he rise to the occasion by the end? I’m not going to give you a head start with the answer, but it may not be what you expect.
 

As this was originally connected to Troma Films, it is hardly surprising that Uncle Lloyd Kaufman does his specialty, and has a creepy cameo, stealing his scene. And speaking of screen absorption, the lead villain of the piece (and there are many bad guys) is head cannibal honcho, Cassandra (Diana Silvio, who is the co-writer whose name is credited first, Assistant Director, and married to the Director). She’s a sexy MILF with cleavage to spare, and has no qualms diving right into her story.
 

This tale, as with David and Diana’s films to come such as Fetish Girls Die Laughing (2012) and Babes in Psycholand (2019; both reviewed on this blog site), rely heavily on the fetish subgenre. Here, we are presented with the likes of tickling, feet, girl-on-girl fighting, peeing, older men/younger woman, sexual asphyxiation, cattle prods, and chloroform.
 

There is a delicious (pun intended) sense of humour that runs throughout the film, such as puns and snarky dialogue, but my favorite by far is Sherriff Hogg and his sister being played by the same actor (Al Torcaso), who seems to relish it. Perhaps I should add cross-dressing to the list of fetishes above?
 

One complaint I can see coming across about this film is that nearly all the victims are female, with few exceptions. However, being the brainchild of Diana Silvio, might this be excused? Would she be called a gender traitor by Second Wave feminists? My answer to that is… whatever. I get annoyed at releases that are exceedingly misogynistic, but this film is open to what it actually is, as are the rest of Silvio’s work: it’s a fetish-fest from beginning to end, and makes no bones about it (this time, pun unintended), and I respect that.
 

Diana Silvio on the left

There is no nudity (though hints of it), implied sex, and lots and lots of gore. The squishy moments are also what happens to the gore, among other bodily fluids, which just feeds (there goes that pun again) into the release’s sub-genre.

 The tone reminds me quite a bit of the female gang films of the late 1950s, such as The Violent Years (1954). It’s definitely a negative feel as the characters are all shady in one way or another, even the heroine (though Christian is the least so, but he’s “new to town”).
 

The thing about fetish films, even if one is covering a wide swath of obsessions, is that there tends to be a particular audience that is attracted to the form. None of my own fetishes are covered here (I’m a proud wuss), but I still enjoyed the oddness of the film because, well, I like odd films, especially those on minuscule budgets. I guess one could imply that was my fetish.
 

The film reminded me of what is said in the play Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, “The history of the world, my sweet… / is who gets eaten and who gets to eat.”

Review: Fetish Dolls Die Laughing

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2015
Images from the Internet

Fetish Dolls Die Laughing

Directed by David Silvio
z-Diet-3 Productions / Kiss of Death Productions
World Wide Multi Media (WWMM)
100 minutes, 2011 / 2012
www.facebook.com/Fetish-Dolls-Die-Laughing
www.mvdvisual.com

The premise is simple: the creature your parents always invoked when you were a wee one as they tickled you (“It’s the tickle monster!!”; I’ve done this, myself, to my wee ones) is an actual demon that transports from body to body, much like the one in Fallen (1998). You can tell the possessed by the red eyeliner, pale skin and yellow teeth, not to mention the evil giggling of the host.

Now, as a confession, this is not a joyous thing for me as I am hyper-ticklish, much to the dismay of loved ones who I won’t let touch me that way. The last time I punched someone was in junior high, when the much larger kid behind me in line would not stop poking me in the ribs, which for most people is ticklish, but for me is painful. After asking him to stop a few times, I lost my temper, and punched him in the jaw. It was seen by my classmate’s mother who worked in the lunchroom (she, like her son, would later become a principal; RIP Mrs. Daub) and I did not get in trouble for it, but the other kid did.

Point is, most people will see this as a – er – laughing matter, but the terror that is being struck in the story is a bit more palpable to me. This actually made me happy because it added another layer to the onion, as it were.

And you may wonder, how does this deranged demon kill? Well, along with the tickling, he also rips out your innards, with lots of blood and some gore, or as the story goes on, methods of  disposal of  course ramp up. So, of course, the fiend tends to transfers into males, so we can get the great and curious title of the film.



Laura Romeo and Michael McGovern

The first half of the film is a bit convoluted with many different deaths and multiple directions involving not only our happy monster, but other deaths as well, such has by hatchet, leading to an extraordinarily higher than usual body count. This also gives us a chance to be introduced to some of the key players.  Of course, this is also a set up for the action to come in the third act, as we learn the lead cop, Greer English (well played by Laura Romeo) is sort of a Dirty Harriet (or pick-a-TV-cop) who tends to put her own life in danger by going rogue and solo, to nab a killer. You know that’s going to turn out badly, since this is a genre film, and “you don’t need a Weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”

A nice proposition is that the tickle monster (or is it Tickle Monster?) invades the body of someone who runs a fetish film company along the lines of W.A.V.E., for those who remember that New Jersey-based company (whose specialty included various fetishes, SM/BD, torture, and tentacles; no I don’t own any of their features) from back in the ‘90s, which introduced some amazing talent, such as the underrated Tina Krause). If you are into fetishes like feet, tickling, plastic wrap bondage, and a host of others, of course, there may be other reasons for watching this.

There is an extremely large cast (including many Italianos), topped by four characters. There is the lead cop, the aforementioned English, and her partner, the love-jealous and borderline sexual harasser Leland Tucker (Angelo Bruni, who looks a lot like a ‘80s Lenny Kaye, right down to the haircut), English’s love interest Adam Bishop (Aaron Bernard), and the possessed wacko fetishist killer, Billy Tagg (Michael McGovern). Now, all due respect meant, McGovern is a decent actor considering his lack of screen credits, but I do find it hard to believe the amount of women way out of his league who throw themselves at him (i.e., victims). Even his late wife, Tanith (Diana Silvio, the director’s spouse), who ran the fetish website which Bill takes over, is quite bosomy and fetching.

There is a lot of sexual tension, attractive women, short skirts, and displays of fetishism, but surprisingly no visual naughty bits. Yet Silvio makes the film kind of weirdly sensual and sexual without it. Again, tickling or feet aren’t my things, but watching other peoples’ out of control lust is fascinating, in the words of the late, great Mr. Spock. The gore is effective and not overdone, though it’s more blood than viscera. However, the ickiest moment to me is when a main character doesn’t wash hands after using bathroom.

Technically, this is a dark comedy, so there’s lots of self-references throughout, sometimes quite subtle as done in An American Werewolf In London (1981), such as someone on the phone saying “You don’t sound tickled to death to be there,” or we see a young couple in a loving tickle fight. One of my fave moments is a cigarette bit at a hospital early on that I won’t ruin.

Sure there is a lot of goofiness, and none of the fetishes are mine, as I said, and yet, despite some wooden acting, this film is actually successfully effective. Part of the reason for that is it’s not just tickling, not just toes (though a lot of that), but a string of many scenarios that play out in a Hershell Gordon Lewis / The Wizard of Gore (1970) bloody kind of way. The body count is large, as I stated, which is all the better to balance out its moments of silliness (again, not meant as an insult in any way, because, well, this is a micro-budgeter with a huge cast, and is supposed to be a dark comedy), such as a smiley-face blanket on the torture table.

For me, the problems with the film are just logistical, which really shouldn’t be applied in cases like these, but it’s the way my analytical brain (or some other organ) works. For example, the torture chamber is set up a room in an apartment. Wouldn’t other tenants hear the screams? And there is at least one attempted escaper in a prone position who could have easily have raised a knee hard enough to cause some damage and escape, but of course, that would lower the count. Also, the echo in the Maniac (1980) inspired dream sequences are just a bit too reverbatory (yeah, I know it’s not a Scrabble-worthy word) to make it clear what is being said. But mostly, it could use a bit of trimming to keep it less than 90 minutes.

It’s obvious from the beginning they are setting up the go-on-her-own main character to fall victim to the tickler, so I’m not giving anything away there, but the question is, though, does she get out of it. Not gonna tell. But I will say that one of the aspects of the finale was not what I was expecting, which I admired.

The extras are a 9-minute deleted scenes collection that mostly doesn’t add much, a decent gag reel, a trailer, and two “Webinars,” which are actually two decent short films worth watching.

So, to sum up, despite the incredibly silly name of the film, it is actually a fun ride in part for the lack of single direction of the story, and by adding elements to the plot – such as a second murder storyline – it becomes more interesting than just goofy.

As a side note, this was a perfect time to see this release as another big budget fetish film you may have heard of called, oh what was that again… oh, yeah, Shades of Grey (2015), opened in theaters all over. Coincidence? That question tickles my fancy.

Trailer HERE